As qualidades dos programas de televisão preferidos pelos espectadores portugueses

Doutoramento em Comunicação SocialEste é um estudo exploratório que tem como objectivo identificar se as características que estão presentes nos programas da serie Big Brother reforçam ou contradizem as qualidades dos programas de televisão narrativos mais preferidos pelos telespectadores portugueses

Produção de sentido de modo cinematográfico: por favor ler antes de tocar numa câmara

Dissertação submetida à Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Mestrado em Desenvolvimento de Projecto CinematográficoOs limites inerentes à produção de sentido de modo cinematográfico nos discursos audiovisuais deriva dos conceitos não se deixarem filmar explicitamente Tese É possível produzir sentido conceptual através de modos não-verbais. Fundamentação Identificar e descrever como é que apesar das ideias não se deixarem filmar, existem formas de comunicação não-verbal que podem ser usadas no interior do discurso audiovisual e que permitem a produção de sentido conceptual complexo. Método 1º Identificar os limites da linguagem visual comparativamente à linguagem verbal 2º Apontar soluções no âmbito da linguagem corporal e o uso da roupa. A capacidade da narrativa ser portadora de significados implícitos para lá dos factos expostos recorrendo a Robert McKee e à noção de controlling idea e ao autor Robert Turner e a noção de parábola e projeção. Edição em continuidade e a representação do pensamento, e memórias dos personagens. Montagem e respetiva capacidade para criar metáforas, contrastes, negações e blending de conceitos. A montagem vertical e a capacidade do efeito Kuleshov também se aplicar á relação imagem / som. Relevância? Discursos audiovisuais que baseiam o respectivo significado na palavra não são necessariamente maus, mas são pobres no sentido que não usam as outras formas de produção de sentido próprias da linguagem cinematográfica

Rua Pires de Almeida: observação incorporada de um lugar público particular

Pires de Almeida Street: Embodied Observation of a Particular Public Space – This article is part of the research “Cognition and Place Design”: application of the enactive approach in performance evaluation of urban places. It intends to incorporate the concepts of enactive cognition proposed by Varela, Thompson and Rosch and of empathy, proposed by Thompson, to the work of Tuan, Norberg-Schulz, Lynch, Cullen, in an embodied observation carried out in a place of recognized quality in Rio de Janeiro: Pires de Almeida Street, in Laranjeiras. The main objective is to verify the applicability and the utility of embodied observation in the evaluation of an urban place and in the identification of elements, indexes and factors that generate its quality. In complement to the embodied observation, aimless walks and wanderings were carried out, by observers without prior theoretical-contextual knowledge of the place, and also the experiences by observers that already possess an experience of the place impregnated of affections and meanings. The results show up the richness of the reports that incorporate the feelings and the affections produced in the interaction among the observers, the users and the environment.Este artigo é parte da pesquisa Cognição e Projeto do Lugar: aplicação do enfoque enactivo na avaliação de desempenho de lugares urbanos, e busca incorporar os conceitos de cognição enactiva proposto por Varela, Thompson e Rosch e de empatia, proposto por Thompson, ao trabalho de Tuan, de Norberg-Schulz, Lynch, Cullen em uma observação incorporada realizada em um lugar de reconhecida qualidade no Rio de Janeiro: a rua Pires de Almeida, em Laranjeiras. Seu principal objetivo é verificar a aplicabilidade e a utilidade da observação incorporada na avaliação de um lugar urbano e na identificação dos elementos, índices e fatores geradores desta qualidade. Em complemento, são explorados percursos ou passeios à deriva de observadores sem conhecimento teórico-contextual prévio do lugar, e de relatos de experiências vivenciadas por observadores que já possuam uma vivência do lugar impregnada de afetos e significados. Os resultados evidenciam a riqueza dos relatos que incorporem os sentimentos e os afetos produzidosna interação entre os observadores, os usuários e o ambiente observado

Design and development of a low-cost reactor for biodiesel production from waste cooking oil (WCO)

Biodiesel stands out as a renewable, biodegradable, and non-toxic fuel when compared to fossil fuels, and has attracted significant attention from researchers and industries for environmental protection and sustainable development. However, around 95% of the world biodiesel production is derived from edible oils, which leads to a competition between oil production for food or for fuel and results in increased costs compared to diesel fuel. Biodiesel production from WCO offers a clean technological solution for both disposal of WCO and cost production problems. For these reasons, non-edible waste cooking oils are considered one of the most promising alternatives of raw material for biodiesel production. WCO can also promote social inclusion in urban areas by generating extra revenue by recycling. The aim of the present work was to develop a low-cost biodiesel reactor by Biosystems Engineering students and teachers from the School of Sciences and Engineering of São Paulo State University (UNESP). The primary goal was to include biofuels technology into the Biosystems Engineering undergraduate curriculum in order to integrate and transcend the contents contemplated in our course by helping the students to build a technological low-cost reactor with innovative research in the biofuels technology field

Recent Advances on Optimum-Path Forest for Data Classification: Supervised, Semi-Supervised and Unsupervised Learning

Although one can find several pattern recognition techniques out there, there is still room for improvements and new approaches. In this book chapter, we revisited the Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifier, which has been evaluated over the last years in a number of applications that consider supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised learning problems. We also presented a brief compilation of a number of previous works that employed OPF in different research fields, that range from remote sensing image classification to medical data analysis

Transcranial direct current stimulation influences the cardiac autonomic nervous control

AbstractTo investigate whether the manipulation of brain excitability by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) modulates the heart rate variability (HRV), the effect of tDCS applied at rest on the left temporal lobe in athletes (AG) and non-athletes (NAG) was evaluated. The HRV parameters (natural logarithms of LF, HF, and LF/HF) was assessed in 20 healthy men before, and immediately after tDCS and sham stimulation. After anodal tDCS in AG the parasympathetic activity (HFlog) increased (P<0.01) and the sympathetic activity (LFlog) and sympatho-vagal balance (LF/HFlog) decreased (P<0.01), whereas no significant effects were detected in NAG (P>0.05). No significant changes in HRV indexes were provoked by sham stimulation in both AG and NAG (P>0.05). In conclusion, tDCS applied on the left temporal lobe significantly increased the overall HRV in AG, enhancing the parasympathetic and decreasing the sympathetic modulation of heart rate. Consequently the sympatho-vagal balance decreased at rest in AG but not in NAG. Releasing a weak electric current to stimulate selected brain areas may induce favorable effects on the autonomic control to the heart in highly fit subjects

Species conservation profiles of cave-dwelling arthropods from Azores, Portugal

Background Azorean volcanic cave biodiversity is under considerable pressure due to ongoing threats of pollution, land use change, touristic activities or climate change. In this contribution, we present the IUCN Red List profiles of 15 cave-adapted arthropod species, endemic to the Azorean archipelago, including species belonging to the speciose genus Trechus (Carabidae), which is represented in Azores by seven species. The objective of this paper is to assess all endemic Azorean cave-adapted species and advise on possible future research and conservation actions critical for the long-term survival of the most endangered species. New information Most species have a restricted distribution (i.e. occur in one or two caves), very small extent of occurrence (EOO) and a small area of occupancy (AOO). A continuing decline in the number of mature individuals is inferred from the ongoing cave habitat degradation. The two troglobitic species of the homopteran genus Cixius are in great danger of extinction due to major land-use changes in epigean habitats above their known localities. We suggest, as future measures of conservation, the regular monitoring of the species (every five years), the creation of additional protected caves, the limitation of several aggressive activities around the caves (e.g. decreasing pasture intensification) and in some cases the creation of fences in the entrance of the most important caves.Peer reviewe

Building a Robust, Densely-Sampled Spider Tree of Life for Ecosystem Research

Phylogenetic relatedness is a key diversity measure for the analysis and understanding of how species and communities evolve across time and space. Understanding the nonrandom loss of species with respect to phylogeny is also essential for better-informed conservation decisions. However, several factors are known to influence phylogenetic reconstruction and, ultimately, phylogenetic diversity metrics. In this study, we empirically tested how some of these factors (topological constraint, taxon sampling, genetic markers and calibration) affect phylogenetic resolution and uncertainty. We built a densely sampled, species-level phylogenetic tree for spiders, combining Sanger sequencing of species from local communities of two biogeographical regions (Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia) with a taxon-rich backbone matrix of Genbank sequences and a topological constraint derived from recent phylogenomic studies. The resulting tree constitutes the most complete spider phylogeny to date, both in terms of terminals and background information, and may serve as a standard reference for the analysis of phylogenetic diversity patterns at the community level. We then used this tree to investigate how partial data affect phylogenetic reconstruction, phylogenetic diversity estimates and their rankings, and, ultimately, the ecological processes inferred for each community. We found that the incorporation of a single slowly evolving marker (28S) to the DNA barcode sequences from local communities, had the highest impact on tree topology, closely followed by the use of a backbone matrix. The increase in missing data resulting from combining partial sequences from local communities only had a moderate impact on the resulting trees, similar to the difference observed when using topological constraints. Our study further revealed substantial differences in both the phylogenetic structure and diversity rankings of the analyzed communities estimated from the different phylogenetic treatments, especially when using non-ultrametric trees (phylograms) instead of time-stamped trees (chronograms). Finally, we provide some recommendations on reconstructing phylogenetic trees to infer phylogenetic diversity within ecological studies